Ok, so here’s my problem.
I own quite a few padded shorts, ranging from $30 - $250 (bibs), and they feel great for the first 2-3 hours, then I get really uncomfortable in them. Not pain, but quite uncomfortable.
I was able to ride 200km wearing only compression shorts with no padding, but I think I got lucky.
Regular shorts/underwear always have issues because of the seams, so they aren’t viable.
I heard that triathlon shorts are lightly padded, so they may offer a nice in-between.
Does anyone wear them? How do they compare to traditional cycling shorts?
I ride regular shorts on longer rides and trips, i have a couple of the super cheap nh100 shorts from decathlon, and some icebreaker merino boxers, not having any issues with seams.
Those look nice, actually!
Can you quantify “longer rides”? How many KM or hours in the saddle are we talking about? For context, I’m looking for options for rides over 100km or 4h+ (up to 10h in the saddle on much longer rides.
I think they are really nice, look pretty good (better when a bit older), they’re light, kinda fast drying and 10 €. Longest ride was 250 km (all flat along a river), they’re just what i have been using for touring in the last years, so riding a lot, every day, for months.
What do you wear under them? just the icebreaker boxers?
I just haven’t had luck with shorts abd undies on long rides. They chafe no matter what style or even if I wear “anti-chafe” underwear.
And I dont sway when I pedal, so my technique should minimize that sort of thing. Like I said, I was able to get 200 km from compression shorts, but they aren’t my first choice for clothing. 😂
Yes, just the boxers, they are called “Icebreaker Anatomica Boxers”, they also only have a seam in the crack (there is a different variant of them that seems to have seams across the cheeks). I was just on a 2.5 months trip and did not use any cream or butter or whatever on my ass, just these boxers and the nh100, every day.
It works for me, maybe not for you.
Because they are wool, I won’t wear them (vegan), but I may look for something similar with seams in the crack. Most (all?) of my current boxers have seams that go over the cheeks, and that’s where most of the rubbing/chafing happens, so that might explain it!